Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. Wittes served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from November of 2009 to January 2012, coordinating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. Wittes also oversaw the Middle East Partnership Initiative and served as deputy special coordinator for Middle East transitions.

Wittes is a co-host of Rational Security, a weekly podcast on foreign policy and national security issues. She writes on U.S. Middle East policy, regional conflict and conflict resolution, the challenges of global democracy, and the future of Arab governance. Her current research is for a forthcoming book, Our SOBs, on the tangled history of America’s ties to autocratic allies.

Wittes joined Brookings in December of 2003. Previously, she served as a Middle East specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace and director of programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington. She has also taught courses in international relations and security studies at Georgetown University. Wittes was one of the first recipients of the Rabin-Peres Peace Award, established by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Wittes is the author of "Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy" (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) and the editor of "How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process" (USIP, 2005). She holds a bachelor's in Judaic and Near Eastern studies from Oberlin College, and a master's and doctorate in government from Georgetown University. She serves on the board of the National Democratic Institute, as well as the advisory board of the Israel Institute, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women in International Security.

Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings. Wittes served as deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from November of 2009 to January 2012, coordinating U.S. policy on democracy and human rights in the Middle East during the Arab uprisings. Wittes also oversaw the Middle East Partnership Initiative and served as deputy special coordinator for Middle East transitions.

Wittes is a co-host of Rational Security, a weekly podcast on foreign policy and national security issues. She writes on U.S. Middle East policy, regional conflict and conflict resolution, the challenges of global democracy, and the future of Arab governance. Her current research is for a forthcoming book, Our SOBs, on the tangled history of America’s ties to autocratic allies.

Wittes joined Brookings in December of 2003. Previously, she served as a Middle East specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace and director of programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington. She has also taught courses in international relations and security studies at Georgetown University. Wittes was one of the first recipients of the Rabin-Peres Peace Award, established by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Wittes is the author of “Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy” (Brookings Institution Press, 2008) and the editor of “How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process” (USIP, 2005). She holds a bachelor’s in Judaic and Near Eastern studies from Oberlin College, and a master’s and doctorate in government from Georgetown University. She serves on the board of the National Democratic Institute, as well as the advisory board of the Israel Institute, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women in International Security.

Generally speaking, peace negotiators don't want to make much news until they can announce an agreement on something, and Kushner made clear yesterday that keeping lips sealed was part of their trust-building strategy with the parties. So it's no surprise his appearance was 99.8% content-free. The question is whether there is a substantive peace plan underneath the coyness, or whether this is all cover for the fact that they haven't achieved any common ground; whether, after all their listening tours and quiet diplomacy, it turns out achieving Middle East peace is a lot harder than they thought. We have plenty of examples to teach that doing Middle East peacemaking badly is worse than not doing it at all. Raising expectations they can't meet, or running into the buzzsaw of highly symbolic issues, can all-too-easily tip this conflict into a crisis. Let's hope the Trump Administration can at least avoid these sorts of mistakes.

Demonstrating and modeling inclusion — that is, visibly and consistently treating your female colleagues as fellow experts whom you admire and respect — is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING men can do every day to create a culture at work where entitled, creepy a‑‑holes don’t feel like they can pull sexist crap on the women in your office and get away with it. The more respect we have and show one another, the more diverse our workplace becomes, the less room there is for a‑‑holes to be a‑‑holes. It’s that simple, really.

This is what opaque, unaccountable, monarchic rule looks like. The way this was done is not a way that gives any transparency. If you’re another senior prince or another senior businessman, you don’t know what you can do to avoid a similar fate.

I think there are a number of analysts that say it might be the very uncritical support [from] Trump that may have emboldened the Saudis and Emirates to believe they could pursue this argument with the Qataris with American support or at least acquiescence.